


Trust Me

by usagigirlff



Series: Moca's ChikaItaWeek2020 [5]
Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Feelings, Gen, M/M, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:48:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25781620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/usagigirlff/pseuds/usagigirlff
Summary: [#Chikaita Week 2020] Day 5:Secrets/Temptations/Double LifeItaru knows that Chikage has secrets. It doesn't mean he's always okay with it.
Relationships: Chigasaki Itaru/Utsuki Chikage
Series: Moca's ChikaItaWeek2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1864408
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34
Collections: ChikaIta Week 2020





	Trust Me

"Chigasaki, perfect timing. I can't go home with you today because I have a meeting with the international team later. Tell the director I won't be eating dinner."

"Ah, Chigasaki. You can go home without me today. Oda-san has invited me out to drinks. I can't refuse him again."

"Good work today. I have to take the visiting representatives out for dinner so I'll be staying behind for now. Drive safe."

"It's already 5 pm, but you don't have to wait for me. I'll take the train later. See you tonight."

"Sorry, Chigasaki. I have to work overtime today. Please go on ahead. I'll see you at home."

* * *

"...Senpai thinks he's so smooth like that. Like I can't tell that he's just making up excuses. Tch, pisses me off." Itaru angrily jabbed at the action keys on his phone, watching the trash mobs dissolve into colorful pixels distractedly. He grabbed a tea cake inbetween attack moves and stuffed it into his mouth.

"Um, Itaru? I'm not trying to say you shouldn't, but out of curiousity what made you decide to confide in me about this?"

Itaru waited for the blue loading bar to appear to take a glance at the blue haired man, relaxed at his desk with his glasses perched next to him, previously interrupted in his readings. 

The sounds of battle music sent his fingers back down into automatic patterns as he mindlessly answered, "Banri kicked me for being afk too much so now I'm partying with you instead."

Tsumugi scanned Itaru's slumped figure on their couch, "He kicked you? Banri did? That doesn't seem like him..."

Itaru didn't move his eyes from the screen but somehow responded even through the flurry of his quick fingerpresses.

"Ah. No he kicked me out. Not literally. I forgot you don't use chatrooms much. Sorry, that's my B."

Tsumugi briefly thought to ask what "B" meant but figured it wasn't the most important thing at the moment.

"Tch, so what's his deal anyways?" Itaru somewhat spitefully muttered.

"Banri's?"

"No, Senpai's. Chikage's." He thought about it, "Although Banri's on my shitlist too."

Tsumugi honestly couldn't say why Itaru decided on his room to espouse on his feelings, but he was kind of honored that the younger man would think of going to him, at least to lend an ear to listen to. Despite his general personality at Mankai, Itaru could still seem so well put together, it was hard for Tsumugi to remember that he was technically the younger one at times. So, while it was a surprise to see him sitting at his couch, munching on tea snacks and playing games, Tsumugi was also oddly complimented by his unexpected show of trust. He'd try his best to see where he could help.

"What's Chikage usually like at the office then?"

"Huh?" Itaru used his left hand to wave it around vaguely, watching his game autoplay for a second, "Oh, you know. Doing important things upstairs. Writing emails and being annoyingly competent at everything. The usual cheat character stuff."

"Hmm... Is that different from what he's been doing the past week?"

Itaru shifted his position on the couch, curling over an arm, further into the couch cushions, and sinking his head into a side pillow comfortably.

"Yeah. Usually, I don't mind when he obviously wants to do things he can't actually tell me about, but he hasn't tried to lie so directly to my face like this before."

Itaru sulked a little further into his pillow, covering the bottom half of his face and shadowing his eyes with the long fringe of his hair.

"It's honestly not that I really mind Senpai doing Senpai things. But I just have a feeling like he's been avoiding me lately... It's not a nice feeling."

"...Oh."

Tsumugi wasn't sure what to say.

Chikage and Itaru weren't exactly keeping their relationship a secret, even the kids at Mankai knew to leave them alone about it, but Tsumugi didn't know enough to really give any advice. Not that he was fit to give relationship advice at all. He may have studied the general psychology between couples as a human relationship, but he'd never actively been in pursuit of one himself. He was too occupied in finally rediscovering his own passions to make enough extra time for that.

"Well, it's not like I think we're going to break up or anything that serious. I'm not the type to let go of a SSR so easily. Even for meta building."

"Ah... Game?"

"Yup~" Itaru popped the "P" at the end.

The sound of victory music chimed tinnily from his phone.

"Nice. Clear~ Only 100 more runs to go."

"That sounds like a lot?" Tsumugi tried.

"All for the love of the leaderboard~ The name Taruchi isn't number one for nothing."

Hmm. It really was hard to understand what he was saying since he was so deeply involved in technolingo, but Tsumugi still wanted to help ease Itaru's worries somehow. Despite his obvious distraction of the game, it was clear that the man was using it less for fun and more as something to keep him occupied. 

He especially wanted to be helpful this time, since Itaru had so deliberately come all the way up here to talk to _someone_ about his personal problems for once. Tsumugi wasn't about to prove that trying to find advice would only leave Itaru more vulnerable than before. This was important. 

Maybe he could at least start with building a clearer picture of their relationship? 

"Hey Itaru?"

"Hmm? What?" The sounds of battle noises started up again.

"How do you feel about Chikage?"

"Mmmm..." Itaru made a thoughtful noise, furrowing his brow a little. He continued to tap away on his phone. Then after a loading screen, 

"It's really unfair of you to ask so earnestly. But if I had to say... Senpai is the type of person to be incredibly unromantic at all times, yet lately, he's been annoyingly romantic at the same time? It's not like Senpai has received a nerf... It just doesn't feel like I should just leave him alone since he's finally started to accurately level scale with the rest of us newbies."

This time, Tsumugi felt like he at least understood some of that.

"So it's not that you feel like you've been set aside... It's that you're worried about him more since he's been trying to open up to you?"

Itaru nodded.

"Mmm, for example, if I left the unmarked cartridge of a game I was leveling and came back to find that it was gone, I'd spend the rest of my life wondering what kind game it could have been. What kind of story it could tell. Where it was? Who was playing it? What secrets was it holding before it disappeared..."

Itaru trailed off there, looking like he'd completely forgot that Tsumugi was watching him. His fingers had slowed to a halt, hovering in their positions above the screen. He looked more sorrowed than Tsumugi had ever seen from any of his performances. Was this really what was on his mind the whole time? 

Then as soon as the moment lasted, it snapped back into reality, the heavy air immediately dispersed by the calls of attack moves ringing merrily from his phone.

"Well, it's something like that."

Tsumugi wasn't sure what to say again.

He really wondered if he needed to get someone else to help give advice...

_No, it doesn't feel like what Itaru needs is more accurate relationship advice... It feels like he just needs a friend._

"I'm not sure you need to worry about Chikage abandoning us anytime soon, Itaru."

"Hmm?"

Tsumugi carried on, trying his best to figure out what Itaru was _really_ saying, "I know that he tried to leave before... But that was before he really got to know you. Or any of Mankai Company."

"You probably can't see it because you're always in the centre of it, but Chikage doesn't seem like he'd be able to leave you without doing something we'd all notice. You can't see how much we expect to see you and then expect to see Chikage right by your side..."

"And it's not something that we usually think about, but it's been almost 3 years since we've met and grown as a family. If Chikage is in trouble, I think we'd all be able to help him, and you, no matter where or how far away he's gone."

Tsumugi noticed that the game music was playing, but the action noises had stopped. He hoped he was doing this correctly.

"I think that you may have been helpless to find your game cartridge when you were by yourself, but you're not alone this time... I think I can speak for the entire company when I say we'd do anything to help you find it again, and all you had to do is ask."

"..."

Itaru paused his game and shifted his elbows under him. He lifted his head off the pillow to look directly through his bangs at Tsumugi.

He sighed, "I guess I'm not the only one worrying over him."

"It would be hard to imagine anyone at Mankai _not_ worrying over either of you." Tsumugi confirmed.

Itaru leveled a judging pink stare at his proclamation.

"Jeez, how much free time does everyone have to worry over someone else's relationship that much..." He grumbled under his breath, somewhat a mix between embarrassed and touched by the spotlight on the two of them.

Then, he cleared his throat to get rid of the thick emotions,

"... FYI, I wouldn't actually lose a game like that. I'm not that careless with my life valuables."

Tsumugi smiled, "I'm glad."

Itaru took in the genuine relief of the kind smile,

"Jeez... Why are all the leaders like this?" He griped.

Then corrected himself, "Well maybe not Banri."

"?"

"Ah, no, it's nothing."

Itaru pushed himself off the couch, pocketing his phone and sitting up to shuffle his feet around the floor for his dropped slippers.

"Well. I think I need to get to a charger."

Tsumugi turned to his desk, scrounging for what he assumed was some kind of charging chord. It was hard to tell since they all looked the same.

"You can see if I have one here?"

Itaru located his slippers, using his toes to angle them so that he could properly slip them on, and stood up, straightening his wrinkled lounging clothes.

"No, I should be heading back. Senpai's going to be home soon and I'd kind of like to keep this conversation between us for now."

He leaned over to grab one last cracker and turned around to give a bashful smile back at Tsumugi,

"Hey... Thanks for listening. And helping me out. I'm not really one to dwell on this sort of thing... But it's kind of been a blind playthrough and I think I needed some perspective to see what I've been doing. And err..."

Itaru shoved his hand into his pocket, fidgeting with his phone.

"...I think we'll be okay for now. Thanks for looking out for us."

Tsumugi felt pleased that Itaru looked a little less conflicted than when he'd first sat down. Even if he didn't feel like he did much, he was glad that he could help Itaru relieve some of his burdens.

"You're very welcome. My door is always open anytime to want to come and talk. Or if you wanted to, we could just hang out." He gave a shrug. It wouldn't be bad to become closer friends. Maybe it could even help him understand some of the topics that his younger students would enthuse about.

Itaru's smile gained a light wry edge at the stereotypical teacher sounding line, "Thanks. I'll be sure to come bother you more when I'm bored then~"

He shoved the rice cracker into his mouth and walked out, nearly bumping into Tasuku at the doorway. He tossed one last lazy wave before disappearing around the corner.

Tasuku stared after his disappearing back before turning to look at Tsumugi,

"What was that about?"

Tsumugi smiled,

"Just having a casual conversation on games."

**Author's Note:**

> Itaru isn't as forgiving/unbothered as Chikage thinks he is, lol. He just pretends to be. 
> 
> Anyway, this time Tsumugi is our ChikaIta victim~ I hope I did him justice! I really like him as a character and it kinda amuses me that Tsumugi is technically older than Itaru... It doesn't feel that way in my head somehow?
> 
> Thank you for reading!


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